Asked for comment, George W. Bush, then Texas governor, said it was not his job to get involved in the concerns over the Night Stalkers and the use of live ammunition in a civilian area of his state.
Just in case one might be tempted to think that the events in Kingsville were simply some aberration from the distant past, a similar military exercise took place in 2009. Soldiers from Fort Campbell, including the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) and other infantry brigades, performed a training air assault in Troy, Tennessee, on September 29-30. It was called Operation Diomedes, after the ancient Greek warrior who wounded Aphrodite, the goddess of love.
After being helicoptered from Fort Campbell, soldiers were dropped into multiple locations throughout the town. Once on the ground, the troops were to clear predetermined buildings in four different objective areas based on a combat scenario.
Military spokesmen said this air assault was the first time that soldiers from the 101st Airborne had conducted such training in the area. The purpose of the exercise was to provide the troops with "pertinent realistic training in unfamiliar terrain to prepare them for possible contingency operations around the world." Some saw this exercise as practice for the military capture of small towns in the United States.
Exercises similar to those in Troy and Kingsville may have occurred as early as 1971, when plans were drawn up to merge the military with police and the National Guard. In that year, Senator Sam Ervin's Subcommittee on Constitutional Rights discovered that military intelligence had established an intricate surveillance system to spy on hundreds of thousands of American citizens. Most of the citizens were antiwar protesters. This plan to merge the police with the military included exercises that were code- named Garden Plot and Cable Splicer. Britt Snider, who was lead researcher on military intelligence for Ervin's subcommittee, said the plans seemed too vague to get excited about. "We could never find any kind of unifying purpose behind it all," he told a reporter. "It looked like an aimless kind of thing."
Yet four years later the plans began to come into sharper focus. In the NewTimes magazine, Ron Ridenhour and Arthur Lubow reported that "[C]ode named Cable Splicer cover[s] California, Oregon, Washington and Arizona, [and is] under the command of the Sixth Army.. [It] is a plan that outlines extraordinary military procedures to stamp out unrest in this country.. Developed in a series of California meetings from 1968 to 1972, Cable Splicer is a war plan that was adapted for domestic use procedures used by the US Army in Vietnam. Although many facts still remain behind Pentagon smoke screens, Cable Splicer [documents] reveal the shape of the monster that the Ervin committee was tracking down."
During the time when Cable Splicer was being carried out, several full-scale war games were conducted with local officials and police working side by side with military officers in civilian clothing. Many policemen were taught military urban pacification techniques. Afterward, they returned to their departments and helped create the early SWAT (Special Weapons and Tactics) teams.
Representative Clair Burgener of California, a staunch Reagan Republican who had attended the Cable Splicer II kickoff conference, was flabbergasted when shown Cable Splicer documents. "This is what I call subversive," he said. Subcommittee chief counsel Doug Lee read through the documents and blurted out, "Unbelievable. These guys are crazy! We're the enemy! This is civil war they're talking about here. Half the country has been designated as the enemy." Britt Snider agreed, stating, "If there ever was a model for a takeover, this is it."
The war on terrorism and the more recent flu alarms have provided the pretext for the activation of plans like Cable Splicer, which is a clear violation of the Posse Comitatus Act.
Diana Reynolds, formerly an assistant professor of politics at Bradford College and a lecturer at Northeastern University, wrote a paper entitled "The Rise of the National Security State: FEMA and the NSC in 1990." In the paper, Reynolds argued:
The Rex-84 Alpha Explan (Readiness Exercise 1984, Exercise Plan) indicates that FEMA in association with 34 other federal civil departments and agencies conducted a civil readiness exercise during April 5-13, 1984. It was conducted in coordination and simultaneously with a Joint Chiefs exercise, Night Train 84, a worldwide military command post exercise (including Continental U.S. Forces or CONUS) based on multi-emergency scenarios operating both abroad and at home. In the combined exercise, Rex-84 Bravo, FEMA and DOD led the other federal agencies and departments, including the Central Intelligence Agency, the Secret Service, the Treasury, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Veterans Administration through a gaming exercise to test military assistance in civil defense.
The exercise anticipated civil disturbances, major demonstrations and strikes that would affect continuity of government and/or resource mobilization. To fight subversive activities, there was authorization for the military to implement government ordered movements of civilian populations at state and regional levels, the arrest of certain unidentified segments of the population, and the imposition of martial rule.
In 1984, the military's involvement with civilian authorities inspired then attorney general William French Smith to write a critical letter stating, ".In short I believe that the role assigned to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) on the revised Executive Order exceeds its proper function as a coordinating agency for emergency preparedness."
In January 2005, fears that secretive, overreaching agencies with military connections might violate the Posse Comitatus Act were substantiated. During this time, news outlets reported that since 2002 the Pentagon's Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) had operated an intelligence- gathering and support unit called the Strategic Support Branch (SSB) with authority to operate clandestinely anywhere in the world to support antiterrorism and counterterrorism missions. The SSB previously had been unknown, operating under an undisclosed name.
Military involvement in daily life has even reached the halls of education. In 2002, the principal of Mount Anthony Union High School in Bennington, Vermont, was shocked to receive a letter from military recruiters demanding a list of all students, including names, addresses, and telephone numbers. Because the school's privacy policy prevented the disclosure of such individual information, the principal told the recruiters no. However, the principal was soon shocked to learn that buried deep within President Bush's new No Child Left Behind Act, public schools must provide their students' personal information to military recruiters or face a cutoff of federal funds.
Republican representative David Vitter of Louisiana, who sponsored the recruitment requirement in the education bill, noted that in 1999, more than nineteen thousand U.S. schools denied military recruiters access to their records. Vitter said such schools "demonstrated an anti-military attitude that I thought was offensive." What could be offensive about wanting to protect the privacy of the nation's students?
"I think the privacy implications of this law are profound," commented Jill Wynns, president of the San Francisco Board of Education. "For the federal government to ignore or discount the concerns of the privacy rights of millions of high school students is not a good thing, and it's something we should be concerned about."
Not only are high school students being bothered by Homeland Security, but also mere kindergarten students who only want to play outside. In May 2002, Scott and Cassandra Garrick sued the Sayreville School District in New Jersey after their six-year-old child and three classmates were disciplined for playing cops and robbers. Apparently, other students saw the youngsters playing on the school yard pretending to use their fingers as guns. The other students told a teacher and the kindergartners were suspended from school.
U.S. District Judge Katharine S. Hayden dismissed the parents' civil suit, claiming school authorities have the right to restrict violent or disruptive games. Yet the parents' attorney, Steven H. Aden, remarked, "They have the right to be children. The school and the courts shouldn't censor their play [even if] it's politically incorrect."
Incidents like this are rarely covered in the corporate mass media. They are never distributed to a large audience, but they often worry thoughtful people.
"I'm terrified," said Ellen Schrecker, author of Many Are the Crimes: McCarthyism in America. "What concerns me is we're not seeing an enormous outcry against this whole structure of repression that's being rushed into place.."
ACLU president Nadine Strossen also voiced concern. "I've been talking a lot about the parallels between what we're going through now and McCarthyism. The term 'terrorism' is taking on the same kind of characteristics as the term 'communism' did in the 1950s. It stops people in their tracks and they're willing to give up their freedoms. People are too quickly panicked. They are too willing to give up their rights and to scapegoat people, especially immigrants and people who criticize the war." Paul Proctor, a columnist for NewsWithViews.com and periodicals across America, added, "Besides being unconstitutional and un-American, snooping on innocent people in a free society is cowardly, divisive and just plan evil.. But, you see—te rrori sts don't want your freedo m—they wa nt your life. It is tyrants and dictators that want your freedom."
DEFICIENT BORDER PATROL
SOME PEOPLE DESIRE TO alter or even abolish the Posse Comitatus Act, particularly with regard to border security. In an October 2001 letter to Donald Rumsfeld, Republican senator John Warner wrote, "Should this law [PCA] now be changed to enable our active-duty military to more fully join other domestic assets in this war against terrorism?" Warner's question continued into late 2002 when then representative Tom Tancredo, members of the Immigration Reform Caucus, and families of victims slain in the course of conflicts between immigration officers and illegal aliens petitioned Congress demanding that military troops patrol the U.S. borders. Jumping on the antiterrorist bandwagon, Tancredo stated, "As long as our borders remain undefended, we cannot claim that we are doing everything possible to protect the nation from terrorism.. It's time to authorize the deployment of military assets on our borders."
During this time, a FEMA official named John Brinkerhoff wrote a paper arguing that "President Bush and Congress should initiate action to enact a new law that would set forth i n clear terms a statement of the rules for using military forces for homeland security and for enforcing the laws of the United States. Things have changed a lot since 1878, and the Posse Comitatus Act is not only irrelevant but also downright dangerous to the proper and effective use of military forces for domestic duties." This paper remained on the Homeland Security website well into 2006.
Critics have questioned how the massive restructuring of the U.S. government under the Homeland Security Act has helped protect the nation, especially when the national borders are left dangerously open to both the nation's north and south. To many thoughtful Americans it seems like a commonsense first step in the war on terrorism to tighten security on the U.S. borders. Yet this does not appear to have happened. Despite an increasing clamor for tighter security, a flood of illegal immigrants continues unabated on the southern border. Though politicians spouted rhetoric about building an effective fence, only a few motion sensors and cameras ended up being deployed.
In late 2009, Border Patrol director of media relations Lloyd Easterling confirmed that the number of agents on the U.S.-Mexico border would be cut by 384. This would bring the total of agents on the Mexican border to 17,015 and agents on the Canadian border to 2,212.
Terence P. Jeffrey, editor in chief of CNSNews.com, reported that in a review Homeland Security officials said the Border Patrol's goal for fiscal 2009 was to have 815 of the 8,607 miles of border under "effective control." Jeffey noted, "The review also said the Border Patrol's goal for fiscal 2010 was to again have 815 miles of border under 'effective control,' meaning DHS was not planning to secure a single additional mile of border in the coming year." U.S. Customs and Border Protection defines "effective control" as the Border Patrol's ability to detect and apprehend an illegal immigrant crossing a particular area of the border.
OFFICE OF STRATEGIC INFLUENCE
The Defense Departments recent actions have done little to inspire confidence that traditional American liberties will be respected if the Posse Comitatus Act is abolished.
Following the 9/11 attacks, the Pentagon announced that it was creating the Office of Strategic Influence (OS I), which was designed to present a more favorable image of the U.S. military to foreign news media. The new organization provoked an immediate controversy when it was learned it planned to influence international opinion by planting false stories in the foreign media. Considering the closeness of the world today, thanks to the Internet, such false stories could easily find their way back into the domestic media. This was nothing new. The CIA had used similar tactics for decades, but this was too blatant. Even the major media, including the NewYork Times, were stirred to action. "Mingling the more surreptitious activities [such as Pentagon covert operations like computer network attacks, psychological activities, and deception], with the work of traditional public affairs would undermine the Pentagon's credibility with the media, the public and governments around the world," noted the Times.
In a rare step backward, in early 2002 the government announced the OSI would be closed. Though Donald Rumsfeld, then secretary of defense, argued that criticism of the OSI was "off the mark," he nevertheless admitted that "the office has been so damaged that.. .it's pretty clear to me that it cannot function."
Rumsfeld refused to let the matter lie. At a November 18, 2002, press briefing, the defense secretary defiantly stated, "And then there was the Office of Strategic Influence. You may recall that. And 'oh my goodness gracious isn't that terrible, Henny Penny, the sky is going to fall.' I went down that next day and said fine, if you want to savage this thing? Fine, I'll give you the corpse. There's the name. You can have the name, but I'm gonna keep doing every single thing that needs to be done and I have." True to his word, only the name of the office was abolished, and OSI activities were merely shifted to another agency. Yet this time, Rumsfeld's vow to continue his program of disinformation was not repeated in the corporate mass media. With this type of propaganda and disinformation program continuing, small wonder many concerned Americans are suspicious about the accuracy of the corporate mass media news content.
OATH KEEPERS
"I, , DO SOLEMNLY swear (or affirm) that
I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God."
This is the U.S. Uniformed Services Oath of Office administered to the military and law enforcement officers.
Nowadays, those who try to stay true to this oath are viewed as zealous or jingoistic. Even the word "patriot" is now looked at as un-American.
One group of government employees that have been adamant about staying true to their oaths is the Oath Keepers. According to the Oath Keepers website, "Oath Keepers is a non-partisan association of currently serving military, reserves, National Guard, veterans, Peace Officers, and Fire Fighters who will fulfill the Oath we swore, with the support of like minded citizens who take an Oath to stand with us, to support and defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic, so help us God. Our Oath is to the Constitution. Our motto is 'Not on our watch!'" Some domestic police officials and soldiers serving in Iraq and Afghanistan have begun wearing Oath Keeper patches on their uniforms.
The Oath Keepers' patriotism was soon attacked by commentators such as Bob Hanafin, a staff writer for the military and foreign affairs journal Veterans Today and a retired air force officer. In a "special report" headlined "Are Right Wing Extremists Trying to Recruit Our Troops?" Hanafin wrote, "Taking oaths to disobey orders of any Chain of Command is not only illegal under the UCMJ [Uniform Code of Military Justice], but it is also illegal under the Hatch Act which most of our troops, including Junior Officers don't know the meaning of." He added, "We will leave it to the Department of Homeland Security (unless they have been too intimidated by the right wing), Department of Defense, and our readers to decide if what Oath Keepers is doing to attract our troops to take an Oath to potentially disobey orders from their Chain of Command is legitimate or if the Department of Defense and Homeland Security needs to closely monitor such recruitment."
Hanafin's article caused reactions from a number of Oath Keepers, such as Patrick M. Fahey, who responded on his blog by writing, "The Hatch Act of 1939['s] main provision is to prohibit federal employees from engaging in partisan political activity (that is why during basic training, military recruits are told you can't protest in uniform).. Now, on to the Uniform Code of Military Justice. The UCMJ is the governing body of law for the military. It lists out what you can be charged for, the regulations for pre-trial confinement, non-judicial punishment, etc. Mr. Hanafin says that under the UCMJ, it is unlawful to disobey an order, which would be correct in most circumstances."
Fahey dissected eight separate articles of the UCMJ and concluded that the Oath Keepers would not violate the requirements of these articles. Oath Keepers have pledged to disobey only orders that fall into the following categories:
-
We will NOT obey orders to disarm the American people.
-
We will NOT obey orders to conduct warrantless searches of the American people.
-
We will NOT obey orders to detain American citizens as "unlawful enemy combatants" or to subject them to military tribunal.
-
We will NOT obey orders to impose martial law or a "state of emergency" on a state.
-
We will NOT obey orders to invade and subjugate any state that asserts its sovereignty.
-
We will NOT obey any order to blockade American cities, thus turning them into giant concentration camps.
-
We will NOT obey any order to force American citizens into any form of detention camps under any pretext.
-
We will NOT obey orders to assist or support the use of any foreign troops on U.S. soil against the American people to "keep the peace" or to "maintain control."
-
We will NOT obey any orders to confiscate the property of the American people, including food and other essential supplies.
10. We will NOT obey any orders which infringe on the right of the people to free speech, to peaceably assemble, and to petition their government for a redress of grievances.
Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes noted that his group only wants to have military and law enforcement members think carefully about the orders they receive. "For example, if a police officer feels he is being asked to do an illegal search of a home or vehicle, he should stand down," Rhodes said.
Yet despite the fact that the Oath Keeper pledge was seemingly written with the general good in mind, the organization was attacked by the Alabama-based Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), which described Oath Keepers as "a particularly worrisome example of the Patriot revival."
"I'm not accusing [Oath Keepers founder] Stewart Rhodes or any member of his group of being Timothy McVeigh or a future Timothy McVeigh," said SPLC spokesman Mark Potok. "What's troubling about Oath Keepers is the idea that men and women armed and ordered to protect the public in this country are clearly being drawn into a world of false conspiracy theory."
HATE CRIMES
It should be noted that the SPLC has come under its share of criticism, despite well-funded promotion and close ties to Democratic politics. Founded in 1971 by Morris Dees and Joseph J. Levin Jr., the nonprofit center has fought to enact laws against hate crimes ranging from hate-inspired murder to outbursts of speech. The SPLC often invokes the name of Oklahoma City bomber McVeigh, thought to be connected to white supremacist groups, as an example of the results of hate crime.
The SPLC regularly conducts highly profitable fund- raising activities. According to Ken Silverstein of Harper's magazine, one example occurred about ten years ago when "The Center earned $44 million...$27 million from fund-raising and $17 million from stocks and other investments—but spent only $13 million on civil rights programs, making it one of the most profitable charities in the country." By 2005, the SPLC reported an endowment fund of more than $152 million.
Armed with millions of dollars, the SPLC has displayed a hatred for haters. The center disparaged the Minuteman Project, a group devoted to preventing illegal border crossings into the United States from Mexico. On the SPLC website, it was reported, "major elements of the Minuteman anti-immigration movement are broadening their agenda to become part of a resurgent antigovernment 'Patriot' movement." Internet commentator Judy Andreas, who conducted an in-depth investigation of the SPLC, stated, "The Southern Poverty Law Center may, at one time, have been a force dedicated to preserving the American Values of freedom and constitutional rights through American law, but they have strayed far afield of their initially stated goals. Today they are wildly flailing accusations at anyone who, in their estimation, is guilty of a 'hate' crime. And as their brush continues to broaden, they are busily applying sweeping strokes to the word 'racism' and hungrily scanning the landscape for anyone who dares to oppose the actions of any non-white individual, group or nation. Whether the non-white individual has committed an act of criminal conduct appears to be irrelevant to the SPLC."
Despite trying to obtain donations while pressing for more "hate crime" legislation, the SPLC's own website, quoting crime experts, admitted that the whole hate crime reporting system is plagued with errors. Regardless, the SPLC's lobbying efforts proved successful in late October 2009, when Congress passed (68-29 in the Senate; 237180 in the House) the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Prevention Act, named after a gay Wyoming college student murdered in 1998. This bill broadened the formerly narrow range of actions (e.g., discrimination in admittance to school or voting) that makes it acceptable for the federal government to intervene in cases where a state is unwilling or unable to prosecute an alleged hate crime.
Dostları ilə paylaş: